Kindle Fire

Kindle Fire

Kindle Fire
Developer Amazon.com
Manufacturer Quanta Computer[1]
Generation 1st
Release date November 15, 2011; 3 months ago (2011-11-15)
Introductory price $199.00 USD
Operating system Android OS 2.3 (customized)
CPU 1 GHz TI OMAP 4 4430 (dual core)[2]
Storage capacity 8 GB[3]
Memory 512 MB RAM[4]
Display 7" multi-touch Gorilla Glass display, 1024×600 at 169 ppi, 16 million colors.[3] Capacitive touch sensitive.[5]
Graphics PowerVR SGX540
Connectivity Micro-USB 2.0 (type B) [6]
3.5 mm stereo socket[6]
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
Online services Amazon Prime, Amazon Cloud Storage, Amazon Cloud Player, Amazon Instant video, Amazon Silk, Amazon App Store, Amazon Kindle Store
Dimensions 190 mm (7.5 in) H
120 mm (4.7 in) W
11.4 mm (0.45 in) D
Weight 413 g (14.6 oz)[7]
Website www.amazon.com/kindlefire

The Kindle Fire is a tablet computer version of Amazon.com's Kindle e-book reader. Announced on 28 September 2011, the Kindle Fire has a color 7" multi-touch display with IPS technology and runs a forked version of Google's Android operating system. The device — which includes access to the Amazon Appstore, streaming movies and TV shows, and Kindle's e-books — was released on November 14, 2011.

The Kindle Fire retails for US$199.[8] Estimates of the device's initial bill of materials ranged from $150 to $190,[9] with one analyst estimating a total production cost of $201.70.[10] Analysts have projected the device to be a strong competitor to Apple's iPad,[8][11] that other Android device makers will suffer lost sales.[12][13] Amazon's business strategy is to make money on the selling of digital content on the Fire, rather than through the device itself.[14][15][16]

The Kindle Fire's external dimensions are 7.5×4.7×0.45 inch (190×120×11 mm),[17] with the visible area of the screen a little smaller than a standard 4×6" photograph.

Analysts estimate that over 6 million Amazon Kindle Fire tablets will be sold in the fourth quarter of 2011.[18]

Contents

Design

Hardware

The Kindle Fire is equipped with a 1 GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 dual-core processor. The display is a 7 inches (180 mm) multi-touch color screen with a 600×1024 pixel resolution. Connectivity is through 802.11n Wi-Fi and USB 2.0 (Micro-B connector). The device includes 8 GB of internal storage — said to be enough for 80 applications, plus either 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books.[19][20] According to Amazon's list of technical details, the Kindle Fire's 4400 mAh battery sustains up to 8 hours of consecutive reading and up to 7.5 hours of video playback with wireless off.[21]

Of the 8GB internal storage, 5GB is available for content.[22]

Software

The Kindle Fire is running a customized Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS.[23] Besides access to Amazon Appstore,[6] the Kindle Fire includes a cloud-accelerated "split browser" called Amazon Silk using Amazon EC2 for off-device cloud computation; including webpage layout and rendering, and Google's SPDY protocol for faster webpage content transmission.[24][25][26] The user's Amazon digital content is given free storage in the Amazon Cloud's web-storage platform,[6] and a built-in email application allows webmail (Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL Mail, etc.) to be merged into one inbox.[6] The subscription-based Amazon Prime, which includes unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows, is available with a free trial period.[6] The current version of the Kindle Fire OS as of December 19, 2011 is 6.2.1_user_3103920.[27]

Content formats supported are Kindle Format 8 (KF8), Kindle Mobi (.azw), TXT, PDF, unrestricted MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8.[6]

Some users of the Kindle Fire report having problems with Wi-Fi, including inability to connect and disconnections.[28] However, detailed analysis has shown slow USB transfer speeds to be the result of Amazon's driver implementation, not a hardware issue.[29]

Another criticism is the fact that the Amazon Appstore is not available anywhere outside of the US.[30]

Rooting and ROMs

Version 6.2.1 is able to be rooted using the command line and two Android packages.[31]

A pre-alpha version of Ice Cream Sandwich has been ported.[32]

References

  1. ^ Lai, Marcus (27 September 2011). "Amazon to burn new tablet this week, says report". Punch Jump. Punch Jump LLC. http://news.punchjump.com/2011/09/27/amazon-to-burn-new--fire-tablet-this-week-says-report/. Retrieved 29 September 2011. 
  2. ^ Johnston, Casey (28 September 2011). "Amazon unveils $199 Android Kindle Fire tablet, $99 e-ink Kindle Touch". arstechnica.com. Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/09/amazon-to-unveil-199-70inch-kindle-fire-tablet.ars. 
  3. ^ a b Lee, Tyler (28 September 2011). "Amazon Kindle Fire unveiled". Ubergizmo. Blogzilla LLC. http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/09/amazon-kindle-fire-unveiled/. 
  4. ^ Grabham, Dan (September 29, 2011). "Kindle Fire vs iPad 2 vs Galaxy Tab 7.7 vs HTC Flyer". TechRadar UK. Future Publishing Ltd. http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/kindle-fire-vs-ipad-2-vs-galaxy-tab-7-7-vs-htc-flyer-1030316. 
  5. ^ Shahbaaz (28 September 2011). "Amazon Unveils Kindle Fire Android Tablet ($199) & Kindle Touch ($99), Kindle 2011 Priced at $79!". tnerd.com. http://tnerd.com/2011/09/28/amazon-unveils-kindle-fire-android-tablet-199-kindle-touch-99-new-kindle-priced-at-79/. 
  6. ^ a b c d e f g "Kindle Fire - the Amazon Tablet with Full Color 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi", amazon.com (Amazon.com), http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051VVOB2, retrieved 2011-10-02 
  7. ^ Grabham, Dan (31 October 2011). "Amazon Kindle Fire: what you need to know Updated: Kindle tablet release date, specs,features and more". TechRadar UK. Future Publishing Ltd. http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/amazon-kindle-fire-what-you-need-to-know-1030069. 
  8. ^ a b "Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet to sell at $199, challenging iPad". Chicago Tribune. 28 September 2011. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-amazon-unveiling-new-tablet-today-its-challenge-to-the-ipad-20110928,0,2380818.story. 
  9. ^ Merritt, Rick (28 September 2011), "Kindle Fire profitable at estimated $150 BoM", www.eetimes.com (eetimes), http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4228505/Kindle-Fire-profitable-at-estimated--150-BoM 
  10. ^ Olivarez-Giles, Nathan (18 November 2011), latimes.com (Los Angeles Times Times), http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/11/amazons-199-kindle-fire-costs-20170-to-build-report-says.html title = Amazons 199 Kindle Fire costs 201.70 to build, report says 
  11. ^ Letzing, John (September 28, 2011). "Amazon to Challenge iPad". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576597141076634146.html. Retrieved 2011-10-01. 
  12. ^ http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/amazons-kindle-fire-will-vaporize-android-leave-apple-unscathed-33340
  13. ^ Lee Brodie, ed. (28 September 2011), "Gene Munster: Samsung, Others Should Worry about Kindle Fire", www.cnbc.com (CNBC), http://www.cnbc.com/id/44707441/Gene_Munster_Samsung_Others_Should_Worry_about_Kindle_Fire 
  14. ^ Myslewski, Rik (30 September 2011), "Amazon's Kindle Fire is sold at a loss", www.theregister.co.uk (The Register), http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/30/amazon_kindle_fire_bill_of_materials/ 
  15. ^ Whitney, Lance (29 September 2011), "Amazon to lose $50 on each Kindle Fire, says analyst", news.cnet.com (CNET), http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20113292-93/amazon-to-lose-$50-on-each-kindle-fire-says-analyst/ 
  16. ^ Naughton, John (2 October 2011), Kindle Fire: the tablet that knows your next move, The Guardian / The Observer, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/02/kindle-fire-ipad-tablet-wars 
  17. ^ Kindle Fire Amazon description Accessed: 11/23/2011
  18. ^ "Amazon to sell 6 million Kindle Fire tablets, 8 million eReaders in Q4". Boy Genius Report. December 13, 2011. http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/13/amazon-to-sell-6-million-kindle-fire-tablets-8-million-ereaders-in-q4/. 
  19. ^ Murph, Darren (28 September 2011). "Amazon Kindle Fire tablet unveiled: Android-based, 7-inch display, $199 price tag". Engadget. AOL Inc. http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/amazon-fire-tablet-unveiled-7-inch-display-199-price-tag/. 
  20. ^ Ziegler, Chris (28 September 2011). "Amazon Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2 vs. Nook Color: by the numbers". This Is My Next. http://thisismynext.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fire-vs-ipad-2-vs-nook-color-numbers. 
  21. ^ Kindle Fire - Full Color 7" Multi-Touch Display with Wi-Fi - More than a Tablet
  22. ^ http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/kindle-fire-edu-holy-grail-or-one-more-drm-ridden-toy/4738
  23. ^ Hollister, Sean (28 September 2011). "Amazon’s Kindle Fire UI: it’s Android, but not quite". This Is My Next. http://thisismynext.com/2011/09/28/amazon-android-ui-kindle-fire-ux/. 
  24. ^ Boulton, Clint (29 September 2011), "Amazon EC2 Underlies Kindle Tablet 'Silk' Browser", www.eweekeurope.co.uk, http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/amazon-ec2-underlies-kindle-tablet-silk-browser-40927 
  25. ^ "Introducing Amazon Silk", www.amazon.com (Amazon.com), http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_rel_topic?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200775440, retrieved 2011-10-02 
  26. ^ 'Amazon Silk team' (28 September 2011), "Introducing Amazon Silk", amazonsilk.wordpress.com, http://amazonsilk.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/introducing-amazon-silk/ 
  27. ^ "Help: Kindle Fire Software Update Version 6.2 20". http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200790620. Retrieved 2011-12-04. 
  28. ^ Coldewey, Devin (November 17th, 2011). "Kindle Fire Having WiFi Issues?". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/17/kindle-fire-having-wifi-issues/. Retrieved 2011-12-04. 
  29. ^ Ku, Andrew (November 24, 2011). "Storage Performance: Slightly Faster Than USB 1.0?! : The Amazon Kindle Fire: Benchmarked, Tested, And Reviewed". Tom's Hardware: Hardware News, Tests and Reviews. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amazon-kindle-fire-review,3076-11.html. Retrieved 2011-12-04. 
  30. ^ Bauer, Jesse. "Amazon Appstore for Android Taken Away Outside U.S. After One Day". Technorati. September 20, 2011
  31. ^ http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/how-to-root-the-kindle-fire-20111223/
  32. ^ http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1411895

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